Barcelona forward Robert Lewandowski has named the two best players in the world that could succeed Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and compete for the Ballon d’Or award.
While the prolific forward seems to have fallen below the benchmark at Barcelona, Lewandowski’s career peaked while he was at Bayern Munich.
In 2020, he was a top favorite to clinch the Ballon d’Or. The terrific Polish forward cleared the lines and went miles ahead of his rivals with a prolific goalscoring run for Bayern Munich that term. He scored a record 55 goals in 47 matches, helping Bayern win a treble of Champions League, Bundesliga, and DFB Pokal, including the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.
From all indications, the former Borussia Dortmund forward was miles above others in the race for the 2020 Ballon d’Or that season. Sadly, the event was canceled due to COVID-19. The next year, he finished third on the rankings behind Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Speaking with Sport Bild, the 34-year-old was asked whether he considered himself a favorite for the award that year and he responded in the affirmative.
“Yes, I believe I could have won the Ballon d’Or in 2020 if the event wasn’t canceled. The stats were there. They spoke on my behalf.”
When quizzed further about whether he could be in the running for the award again, Lewandowski diverted from the query and picked two players he believed are set to dominate the game and compete for the Ballon d’Or in the coming years.
“At the moment, Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham are the two best players in the world for me likely to compete strongly for the award,” he said.
Despite nearing the twilights of his career, Robert Lewandowski has not lost his prolific goalscoring form. The 35-year-old scored a hat-trick as Barcelona saw off Valencia 4-2 in LaLiga on Monday. He has now scored 16 goals in 30 LaLiga matches for the club with 8 assists.
